In recent years, fine processing technology for transferring a fine structure provided at a surface of a mold onto a member to be processed, such as a resin material, a metallic material, or the like, has been developed and has received attention. (Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 67, Issue 21, pages 3114-3316 (1995) by Stephan Y. Chou, et al.) This technology is called nanoimprint (or nanoembossing), and provides a processing resolving power on the order of several nanometers. For this reason, the technology is expected to be applied to a next-generation semiconductor manufacturing technology in place of a light exposure device, such as a stepper, a scanner, or the like. Further, the technology is capable of effecting simultaneous processing during formation of a three-dimensional structure on a wafer. For this reason, the technology is expected to be applied to a wide variety of fields, such as manufacturing technologies, and the like, for optical devices, such as photonic crystals, and the like, biochips, such as μ-TAS (micro total analysis system), etc.
In such a pattern transfer technique using monoimprint, when it is used in the semiconductor manufacturing technology, a fine structure on a mold is transferred onto a work (workpiece) in the following manner.
First, on a substrate (e.g., a semiconductor wafer), as a member to be processed, constituting the work, a layer of a photocurable resin material is formed.
Next, a mold provided with a fine structure of a desired imprint pattern is aligned with the work, and an ultraviolet-curable resin material is filled between the mold and the substrate. Thereafter, the resin material is irradiated with ultraviolet rays, to be cured, followed by separating of the mold from the resin material.
As a result, the fine structure of the mold is transferred onto the resin material layer. By effecting etching, or the like, through the resin material layer as a mask, a pattern corresponding to the fine structure of the mold is formed on the substrate.
Incidentally, in a step of separating the mold (template) from the member to be processed (work and resin material) in the nanoimprint, electrification (separation charging) can occur at the surfaces of the mold and the work. Due to this charging, when the mold and the material are parted (separated) from each other, a discharge breakdown of the transferred pattern or adsorption of dust on or contamination of the mold can be caused to occur, resulting in a defective transferred pattern.